I used to think them very sentimental and pretty." "They contain," said Heliobas, "the germ of a great truth, as many of the most fanciful verses of the poets do.

As the 'image of a voice' mentioned in the Book of Job hinted at the telephone, and as Shakespeare's 'girdle round the earth' foretold the electric telegraph, so the utterances of the inspired starvelings of the world, known as poets, suggest many more wonders of the universe than may be at first apparent.

Poets must always be prophets, or their calling is in vain.
Put this standard of judgment to the verse-writers of the day, and where would they be?
The English Laureate is no seer: he is a mere relater of pretty stories.

Algernon Charles Swinburne has more fire in him, and more wealth of expression, but he does not prophesy; he has a clever way of combining Biblical similes with Provengal passion--et voila tout! The prophets are always poor--the sackcloth and ashes of the world are their portion; and their bodies moulder a hundred years or more in the grave before the world finds out what they meant by their ravings.

But apropos of these lines of Shelley.